OHIO GRADUATION TESTS - Ohio Department of

OHIO GRADUATION TESTS

Reading

Scoring Guidelines and Samples of

Scored Student Responses

© 2008 by Ohio Department of Education

Spring 2008

Table of Contents Item 3: Item and Scoring Guidelines………………………………………………………………1 Item 3: Samples of Scored Student Responses………………………………………………….5 Item 14: Item and Scoring Guidelines…………………………………………………………...14 Item 14: Samples of Scored Student Responses………………………………………………20 Item 21: Item and Scoring Guidelines…………………………………………………………...31 Item 21: Samples of Scored Student Responses………………………………………………35 Item 31: Item and Scoring Guidelines……………………………………………………………45 Item 31: Samples of Scored Student Responses………………………………………………50 Item 36: Item and Scoring Guidelines……………………………………………………………61 Item 36: Samples of Scored Student Responses………………………………………………66 Item 41: Item and Scoring Guidelines………………………………………………………..….76 Item 41: Samples of Scored Student Responses………………………………………………79

Reading

Item 3

Spring 2008

Item and Scoring Guidelines

1

Passage

The Sweat-Soaked Life of a Glamorous Rockette by Susan Dominus

1 One after the other, like beautiful, glittering drones, the Rockettes spilled off

an elevator onto the stage level at Radio City Music Hall. Dressed in sequined skating costume, their shoulders swaying, they sauntered down a narrow hallway and gathered off stage right, waiting to go on for the holiday show’s opening night. All flashing the same red-lipstick smile, batting the same fake eyelashes, they flirted with the crew members, adjusted their Statue of Liberty-style crowns or wished one another good luck.

2 One dancer told her friend she had to go to the bathroom, but was nervous that she didn’t have enough time. ‘‘Just go,’’ her friend reassured her, and with a clattering of her tap shoes, the worrier was off.

3 Amy Love Osgood, 26, a first-year Rockette, was going over a tricky part of the opening number. ‘‘Jump, shuffle, leap, toe,’’ they repeated. Meanwhile, huddled at the edge of the curtain, one young woman caught a glimpse of her parents, seated near the front, and clapped in delight.

4 Ordinarily, the dancers also would have been able to see the familiar faces of

the 35 orchestra members. But two days before, the musicians had gone on strike, and after two preseason shows were canceled, the Rockettes, for the first time in the 73-year history of the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, started the season performing to a digital recording. They miss the musicians, several say, not to mention the extra energy they get from the live music. And energy is something they dearly need.

5 This is high season for the Rockettes, three solid months of steady work, solid

pay, grateful audiences and all the excitement of dancing in New York with a world-famous company. But it’s also a time of gruelingly hard work, of seven dance numbers and six costume changes per show, as many as five shows in a 13-hour day, and as many as six days of work a week.

6 And then there are the crowds: the girls in red velvet and Mary Janes and the

tourists with laminated folding maps, so determined to see the show that they line up first thing in the morning, some willing to pay as much as $250 for an orchestra seat. All in all, 1.2 million people came to see the show last year, bringing in $74 million in ticket sales over nine weeks. Even long before the peak of the season, a Rockette who finishes a 10 a.m. show must fight her way through a mob to get a gulp of fresh air or coffee around the corner. Looking toward the Christmas season, most people foresee a hectic time of year; for the Rockettes, it’s like standing in front of an onrushing train.

2

7 The Rockettes are instantly recognizable symbols, but what they represent depends on who is doing the interpreting: to some they’re Stepford1 dancers, objectified women reduced to nothing but legs and teeth; to others they’re glamour personified, the last, cherished remnants of a ‘‘Guys and Dolls’’-style nightlife; and to yet another part of the audience they’re glorious kitsch, as amusing as they are entertaining. But one thing is constant: their sheer physical accomplishment. Even in a city full of sweating, striving talent, the Rockettes may well be the hardest-working women in show business.

8 In recent years their show has become increasingly athletic (and a hint

sexier), with more kick lines and aerobic dance routines. Yet there is still charm in the organization’s old-fashioned ways------ the labels reading ‘‘Miss Love’’ in each of Ms. Love Osgood’s costumes, the camaraderie among crew members and dancers, the protective watch the management keeps on its charges, monitoring every conversation they have with reporters.

9 A fair number of the performers spend the rest of the year working in musical

theater, but for others this is their only time dancing onstage. Off season, Carrie Janell Hammer, 24, auditions for television pilots and does improv comedy; Jamie Lyn Windrow, 29, studies nutrition; and Meg Huggins, 33, models and works, as do so many others, as a Pilates instructor.

10 Rockettes tend to get asked back year after year, which makes it one of the

steadiest gigs in the business------and one of the few gigs for jazz and tapdancers who don’t also sing. Radio City management would not comment on what Rockettes earn, but dancers say they typically get paid on par with Broadway dancers, a salary that breaks down to about $135 a show. But because they perform so many more times a day, and get overtime for the third, fourth and fifth shows, the season is about as lucrative as dancing jobs get. Year-round health benefits and solid friendships keep some dancers loyal to the job for upward of a decade, although most women walk away from its endurance challenge by the time they are in their mid-30’s.

1The Stepford Wives is the name of a novel and movie about the fictional town of Stepford, Connecticut, where all the wives seem to be eager-to-please, impossibly beautiful, but robot-like. Copyright © 2005 by The New York Times Co. Reprinted with permission.

3

Item 3. ‘‘Even long before the peak of the season, a Rockette who finishes a 10 a.m.

show must fight her way through a mob just to get a gulp of fresh air or a coffee around the corner.’’ (paragraph 6)

Explain how the above excerpt from the passage helps to develop the author’s argument. Use information from the passage to support your response. Write your answer in the Answer Document. (2 points)

Sample Response for Item 3 (Short Answer):

The response should be similar but not limited to the following:

The above excerpt shows the hectic pace that the dancers lead. As the author pointed out, the dancers sometimes work as many as 5 shows in a 13-hour period. They have to manage their routines and quick-changes, but they also have to take care of their own comfort. Only by squeezing everything in can the show turn out successfully.

Alternate details possibly to be used: loss of identity — drones, inhuman schedules, Stepford dancers, objectified; sacrifices the dancers make — have other jobs, devote long hours to training and performance, squeeze in bathroom breaks and coffee breaks.

Scoring Guidelines for Item 3:

Score Point Description

2 points The response provides a plausible explanation that is supported with appropriate reference to the passage.

1 point The response provides a plausible explanation, but it is not supported with appropriate reference to the passage.

0 points The response does not provide sufficient evidence of understanding the task.

4

Reading

Item 3

Spring 2008

Samples of Scored Student Responses

5

Score Point: 0

This response does not provide a plausible explanation of how the excerpt develops the author’s argument. The response consists only of information closely paraphrased from the passage and does not provide evidence of understanding the task.

6

Score Point: 0

This response does not provide a plausible explanation of how the excerpt develops the author’s argument. The response consists only of information closely paraphrased from the passage and does not provide evidence of understanding the task.

7

Score Point: 1

This response provides a plausible explanation of how the excerpt develops the author’s argument (“It’s one of the most busy shows even when it isn’t in its peak”), but does not support the idea with appropriate information from the passage.

8

Score Point: 1

This response provides a plausible explanation of how the excerpt develops the author’s argument (“by giving the reader an idea of how difficult a Rockette’s life can be”), but does not support the idea with appropriate information from the passage.

9

Score Point: 1

This response provides a plausible explanation of how the excerpt develops the author’s argument (“helps the author in explaining how popular the Rockettes are”), but does not support the idea with appropriate information from the passage.

10

Score Point: 2

This response provides a plausible explanation of how the excerpt develops the author’s argument (“It shows how hard the Rockettes work and how little their break time is”). This explanation is supported with appropriate information from the passage (“they work sometimes 13 hour days”).

11

Score Point: 2

This response provides a plausible explanation of how the excerpt develops the author’s argument (“helps the author give an example of how truly famous and sought out the Rockettes are”). This explanation is supported with appropriate information from the passage (“some [fans are] willing to pay as much as $250 for an orchestra seat”).

12

Score Point: 2

This response provides a plausible explanation of how the excerpt develops the author’s argument (“The author is trying to argue that a Rockette’s life is very busy and at times can be complicated”). This explanation is supported with appropriate information from the passage (“‘... a time of gruelingly hard work, of seven dance numbers and six costume changes per show ...’”).

13

Reading

Item 14

Spring 2008


14

Passage

Trees by Josephine Jacobsen

[NOTE: A “hamadryad” (paragraph 1) was a minor god in Greek and Roman mythology who lives in a tree and dies when the tree dies. “King Solomon’s baby case” (paragraph 2) is found in the Old Testament and involved what seemed like an irresolvable dispute between two women, each claiming the same child. King Solomon offered to decide the issue by cutting the baby in half and giving each woman an equal share. The baby’s “real” mother proved to be the woman who so loved the child she was willing to let the other woman take the child, thus, preserving it from harm. “Solomon’s plaintiffs” (paragraph 9) would be the two women who each claimed the same child. A “misanthropic” person (paragraph 3) is one who dislikes and distrusts other people and tends to avoid them. A “marmoset” (paragraph 5) is a small monkey native to Central and South America. The “quintessence” of something (paragraph 7) would be the purest or most perfect example of it.] 1 A friend of mine, a man devoutly dedicated to trees, owns half a tree. The tree,

a lavish oak, grows exactly on the line between his property and that of his Cambridge neighbors. His half provides shade for a beautiful yard banked with rhododendrons, high-fenced for privacy, and quite sylvan, considering its position on the corner of a busy street. Not unnaturally, the lavish oak also provides shade for a considerable area of the neighbor’s property, on just the location where the neighbor’s wife proposes a flowerbed. The neighbor sent word, politely ahead of time, that he would be having the oak “removed.” This euphemism for destruction enraged my friend, the descendant of a long line of hamadryads. His succinct response was “Never.”

2 Negotiations over drinks having abysmally failed, an impasse emerged

reminiscent of that of King Solomon’s baby case. The matter went to court. 3 And what did the court say? My friend becomes so emotional at this point that

it is a bit hard to sort things out clearly. But what does develop without doubt is the decision that the tree must go. (Could this be prompted by the Puritan ethic that pleasure must yield to purpose, leisure in the shade to activity in the sun?) So, relations are frosty, my friend misanthropic, and the tree doomed. One can only hope, weakly, that the flowers will be magnificent. But, in comparison to the massive presence of an oak, delphinium? Gladioli?

4 I side with my friend, through more than friendship. It seems to me that, if we

played a variation on the what-book-would-you-take-to-a-desert-island game and I were forced to choose one field of vision in which to take refuge from moments of urban crisis, it would be in the world of trees. A kind of implicit

15

majesty has little to do with size; the giant sequoias, the mammoth tree of Tula, are overwhelming, but it is the tree nature itself that seems to shelter and somehow deeply reassure.

5 Trees were an important part of childhood. In books, they displayed the giant

twisted roots among which the provident leprechaun disappeared, or the somber forest over which Kay flew with the Snow Queen. In leafy reality, they were privacy and magic. When I lived in the North, I spent hours in the crotch of a dogwood. Given both height and secrecy, I could cling quietly, close to the leveling branches of flat flawed flowers around me; in early autumn, if I sat still enough, birds gathered in a small uproar over the red berries. When I lived in the South, back I went into the trees like a marmoset; long-leaf pine with dry spicy tassels and drops of bright sticky sharp-smelling resin on the slick small boughs.

6 Now we have what we fondly call an orchard; it consists of five apple trees. In

the cold New Hampshire May mornings, they put out the most defenseless-looking clusters of rose and white, against the cold glossy bark. And in September, hour after hour, they drop heavy red globes into the matted field grass with the faintest of thuds.

7 But, as with horses and dogs, there is something domestic about fruit trees.

Even in their dazzling bloom or faint promise on a Van Gogh canvas, they are beautifully, dutifully, serving. But the oaks, the vanishing elms, the crowds of white birches in the mountain woods, are just there. There are trees that are the quintessence of their landscape—the pointed darker cypresses against the dark blue Italian sky; the flat, protective umbrella of the Kenyan thorn trees; the Caribbean palm springing like a fountain from its round bare trunk; the speckled hide of the great cork trees of Portugal.

8 The deciduous trees are a perfect architecture of winter, a maze in which the

eye travels; endless planes and angles and cross-sections and twiggy outbursts, almost black against the winter sun. And there is something infinitely reassuring in the knowledge of the underground tree—the great horny mass of roots, keeping the rough circumference of the tree in air, a factory of preparation below the cold crust of the earth. Even more assertive, our Baltimore tulip magnolia, the instant its petals have been washed and blown away in April, discloses a thousand buds, tight and battened down for the contest. There they sit, presumably bereft of nourishment for the long months ahead, having an entire summer to go through in the foreknowledge of winter. Later, under the sleet and mudcolored skies, they roost there like demonstrators defying an evil regime.

9 Well, my friend, unlike Solomon’s plaintiffs, will have his half. I hope it is stacked

in huge logs in his deprived yard, by the rhododendrons curled up in disgust at February. And that it will end up in one of the most ancient of rites, cremated with respect and gratitude. It will burn strongly for a long time,

16

having stored up a great richness of resistance. And in my friend’s mind, as it settles to its ashes, its great leafy ghost will loft itself into the juridicial Cambridge air.

“Tree,” pages 167–169 from The Instant of Knowing, by Josephine Jacobsen (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1997). Reprinted with permission.

17

Item 14. The author makes several references in the passage to classical, biblical, or

historical events, figures, or characters. Give two examples or details of these from the passage and explain how they contribute to the meaning of the passage.

Write your answer in the Answer Document. (4 points)

Sample Response for Item 14 (Extended Response):

Possible example or detail #1: The author first refers to the biblical story of “King Solomon’s baby case” in paragraph 2 and refers to it again in paragraph 9.

Possible explanation for #1:

• The author cites this biblical reference to emphasize the neighbors’ inability to reach an agreement over the future of the oak tree.

• The author cites this biblical reference to suggest that her friend (the subject of the passage) will still be able to have his portion of the tree, although it will be in a different form.

• The author cites this biblical reference to suggest that her friend’s predicament is similar to that of the two women involved in the “King Solomon’s baby case.”

Possible example or detail #2: The author refers to the hamadryad, a character in Greek and Roman mythology, in paragraph 1.


• The author cites this mythological story to compare the author’s friend to the hamadryad. For the hamadryad, as for the subject in this story who wants to save the oak tree, trees have great meaning.

• The author cites this mythological story to emphasize her friend’s connection with trees, stating that he is a “descendant of a long line of hamadryad.” This phrase shows the author’s friend as a protector of trees.

• The author cites this mythological story to explain the importance of nature to her friend (the subject of the passage).

Possible example or detail #3: The author refers to mythical creatures in paragraph 5 by referring to the leprechaun, a mythological creature that lives among the roots of the tree; and the Snow Queen, a character in a popular children’s book.


18

• The author refers to these mythical creatures to show how trees were an important part of her own childhood. Trees allowed her to connect with the magical settings of her books.

• The author refers to these mythical creatures to explain how trees provided the setting of her escape into the world of imagination.

Possible example or detail #4: The author refers to classical figures in paragraph 7 when she mentions the artist Van Gogh.


• The author refers to this artist by comparing the beauty of fruit trees to the “dazzling ... promise [of] a Van Gogh canvas” in order to explain that she finds these trees both beautiful and complex.

Scoring Guidelines for Item 14: Score Point Description

4 points The response provides two examples from the passage and a complete explanation of how these examples contribute to the meaning of the passage.

3 points The response provides two examples from the passage but a somewhat less complete explanation about how these examples contribute to the meaning of the passage.

2 points The response provides two examples from the passage but a complete explanation about what just one of them adds to the meaning of the passage.

1 point The response provides two examples from the passage, but there is no explanation for what either of them adds to the meaning of the passage.


19

Reading

Item 14

Spring 2008


20

Score Point: 0

The response does not provide sufficient evidence of understanding the task.

21

Score Point: 0

The response provides no examples of references the author makes to classical, biblical or historic events, figures or characters.

22

Score Point: 1

The response provides one example of a reference the author makes to classical, biblical or historic events, figures or characters (“King Solomon and the baby case”), but does not provide a correct explanation of how this example contributes to the meaning of the passage.

23

Score Point: 1

The response provides one example of a reference the author makes to classical, biblical or historic events, figures or characters (“provident leprechaun”), but does not provide a correct explanation of how this example contributes to the meaning of the passage.

24

Score Point: 2

The response provides one example of a reference the author makes to classical, biblical or historic events, figures or characters (“story about the two women claiming the one baby”) and provides a correct explanation of how this example contributes to the meaning of the passage (“the baby represents the trees and the two women represents the neighbors’ fued”).

25

Score Point: 2

This response provides two examples of a reference the author makes to classical, biblical or historical events, figures or characters (“... reffering to the old testement when two mothers claimed a baby and solomon decided to end it by splitting the baby in half,” “Also it talks about the long line of hamadryads. Hamadryad is a Greek and Roman god who lived in trees and would die when they die). This response does not provide explanations of how these examples contribute to the meaning of the passage.

26

Score Point: 3

The response provides two examples of references the author makes to classical, biblical or historic events, figures or characters (“Van Gogh paintings,” “King Solomon case”), but only provides an explanation of how the Van Gogh example contributes to the meaning of the passage (“The real life view is even more beautiful to the author”).

27

Score Point: 3

This response provides two examples of references the author makes to classical, biblical or historic events, figures or characters (“The author mentions King Solomons baby case,” “The author also talks about the hamadryads, a minor Greek and Roman God”), but only provides an explanation of how the hamadryads example contributes to the meaning of the passage (“... showing that his friend will be hurt, if the tree is cut down.”).

28

Score Point: 4

The response provides two examples of references the author makes to classical, biblical or historic events, figures or characters (“hamadryad,” “King Solomon’s baby case”), along with an explanation of how these examples contribute to the meaning of the passage (“The friend looses something, although not his life like hamadryad, when the neighors win the fight over the tree,” “It forshadowed that both sides couldn’t have what they wanted”).

29

Score Point: 4

The response provides two examples of references the author makes to classical, biblical or historic events, figures or characters (“hamadryad,” “Vincent Van Gogh”), along with an explanation of how these examples contribute to the meaning of the passage (“referring to the author’s friend as a hamadryad emphasized how much he loved trees,” “by emphasizing how beautiful the trees really are”).

30

Reading

Item 21

Spring 2008


31

Passage

A Fire in My Hands by Gary Soto

1 I began writing poems fifteen years ago while I was in college. One day I was

in the library, working on a term paper, when by chance I came across an anthology of contemporary poetry. I don’t remember the title of the book or any of the titles of the poems except one: “Frankenstein’s Daughter.” The poem was wild, almost rude, and nothing like the rhyme-and-meter poetry I had read in high school. I had always thought that poetry was flowery writing about sunsets and walks on the beach, but that library book contained direct and sometimes shocking poetry about dogs, junked cars, rundown houses, and TVs. I checked the book out, curious to read more.

2 Soon afterward, I started filling a notebook with my own poems. At first I was

scared, partly because my poetry teacher, to whom this book is dedicated, was a stern man who could see the errors in my poems. Also, I realized the seriousness of my dedication. I gave up geography to study poetry, which a good many friends said offered no future. I ignored them because I liked working with words, using them to reconstruct the past, which has always been a source of poetry for me.

3 When I first studied poetry, I was single-minded. I woke to poetry and went to

bed with poetry. I memorized poems, read English poets because I was told they would help shape my poems and read classical Chinese poetry because I was told that it would add clarity to my work. But I was most taken by the Spanish and Latin American poets, particularly Pablo Neruda. My favorites of his were the odes—long, short-lined poems celebrating common things like tomatoes, socks, scissors, and artichokes. I felt joyful when I read these odes; and when I began to write my own poems, I tried to remain faithful to the common things of my childhood—dogs, alleys, my baseball mitt, curbs, and the fruit of the valley, especially the orange. I wanted to give these things life, to write so well that my poems would express their beauty.

4 I also admired our own country’s poetry. I saw that our poets often wrote

about places where they grew up or places that impressed them deeply. James Wright wrote about Ohio and West Virginia, Philip Levine about Detroit, Gary Snyder about the Sierra Nevadas and about Japan, where for years he studied Zen Buddhism. I decided to write about the San Joaquin Valley1, where my hometown, Fresno, is located. Some of my poems are stark observations of human behavior, while others are spare images of nature—the orange groves and vineyards, the Kings River, the bogs, the Sequoias. I fell in love with the valley, both its ugliness and its beauty, and quietly wrote poems about it to share with others.

32

1San Joaquin Valley (san wa-keen): a 1,400 square-mile agricultural area in California located between the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the east and the San Francisco Bay area to the west. Foreword to A FIRE IN MY HANDS by Gary Soto. Copyright © 1990 by Scholastic, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Scholastic Inc.

33

Item 21. Giving two examples from the passage, describe how the writer gets the ideas

for his poetry.

Write your answer in the Answer Document. (2 points) Sample Response for Item 21 (Short Answer): Possible explanations:

• The writer develops the content of his poems through his connections with other poets’ works.

• The writer develops the content of his poems by reflecting on his own personal experiences.

Possible examples include the following:

• The writer is inspired to write poetry after reading an anthology (collection) of contemporary poetry.

• After reading the works of American poets that focus on “places where they grew up,” the writer begins to write poems about the San Joaquin Valley, where he was born.

• The writer is inspired by Spanish and Latin American poets, especially Pablo Neruda.

• The writer feels a particular connection with Neruda’s odes to everyday items, so he begins to write this type of poetry and focus on “common things of [his] childhood ... to give these things life, to ... express their beauty.”

• The writer is inspired to write poetry about his past experiences that resemble the poetry he finds in the library.

Scoring Guidelines for Item 21: Score Point Description

2 points The response gives an accurate description of how the writer gets the ideas for his poetry, including two examples from the passage, OR the response gives two descriptions.

1 point The response gives an accurate description of how the writer gets the ideas for his poetry, including an example from the passage, OR the response gives one description.


34

Reading

Item 21

Spring 2008


35

Score Point: 0

This response does not provide sufficient evidence of understanding the task.

36

Score Point: 0


37

Score Point: 0


38

Score Point: 1

This response gives one accurate description of how the writer develops the content for his poems (“He admired our own country’s poetry”). No examples from the passage are given for this description.

39

Score Point: 1

This response gives one accurate description of how the writer develops the content for his poems (“by reading poems by people outside of his contry and also by people inside his country”). No examples from the passage are given for this description.

40

Score Point: 1

This response gives one accurate description of how the writer develops the content for his poems (“from English poets and from Latin American poets”). The response does not include examples from the passage for this description.

41

Score Point: 2

This response gives two accurate descriptions of how the writer develops the content for his poems (“He reads other artists poetry, and then tries to imitate them” and “He also talks about his hometown and stuff from his childhood”). The response includes examples for the second description (“dogs, alleys, baseball mitt, curbs”).

42

Score Point: 2

This response gives two accurate descriptions of how the writer develops the content for his poems (“from Pablo Neruda’s work” and “from the landscape around him”). The response includes examples for each description (“ideas of how to write about ordinary everyday things” and “He wrote about his hometown”).

43

Score Point 2:

This response gives two accurate descriptions of how the writer develops the content for his poems (“from ... common things from childhood” and “from what other poets write about”). The response includes examples for each description (“dogs, alleys, baseball mitts, & curbs” and “inspiration from his own country poets”).

44

Reading

Item 31

Spring 2008


45

Passage

Interpreting the Theater Without Speaking a Word

1 The Broadway musical “Fosse” usually opens with just one spotlight on a woman standing stage right singing “Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries.” The other night there was another spotlight stage left on a woman standing in the front row facing the audience, acting out the words with her hands and face, reaching up into the darkness, pinching at make-believe cherries and dropping them into her mouth.

2 The sign language evocation was part of the 21st season of interpreted

performances for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Since 1980, with the first sign-language-interpreted performance of “The Elephant Man,” the Theater Development Fund has presented hundreds of such performances of Broadway and Off-Broadway shows through its Theater Access Project. Four years ago the fund began to offer captioned performances in some theaters, with small digital screens at the front of one of the side sections of the orchestra seats.

3 In June, the fund held its third annual one-week summer course for interpreters

from regional theaters throughout the country. The course is intended to increase the pool of qualified interpreters and to raise the standard of theater interpreting nationwide. This year’s course drew participants from 17 states, many of whom interpret Broadway shows on the road. As their final project, the students helped translate, rehearse and participate in the signing of “Jekyll and Hyde” on Broadway.

4 Candace Broecker Penn and Alan Champion, who handled the recent

performance of “Fosse,” are among Broadway’s most experienced interpreters and often work as a team. They have handled about 15 productions together and also lead the summer institute.

5 Ms. Penn and Mr. Champion say their work involves much more than sign

language: it is about explaining context, directing attention and conveying emotion. They try to strike a delicate balance, Ms. Penn said, telling an audience where to focus without drawing that focus to themselves.

6 “We’re trying to connect the deaf audience to the stage performance,” Ms.

Penn said. “When they look at you, they should know exactly which actor is speaking onstage.”

7 “It’s a fine line,” she added, “because if it’s too showy, actors will feel it’s

distracting, and a deaf audience will feel it’s distracting.” 8 Mr. Champion added: “It’s almost like you want the deaf people in the

audience to tell you when they need you. There is plenty of stuff in a show

46

that’s visual. You’re looking for those moments when you can invite people not to watch us.”

9 For audiences the interpretations can be electric. “It has opened the world of

musicals for me,” said Frank L. Dattolo, a deaf actor who toured for three years with the National Theater of the Deaf and regularly attends signed performances. “I was able to identify with hearing people and to understand why people in general love musical plays. At that point I finally understood the meaning of escape, where people go see plays or musical plays to escape to a fantasy world for a few hours and then go back to reality.”

10 Lisa Carling, who runs the Theater Access Project, said she regularly drew from

a pool of about a dozen interpreters. Communicating a Broadway show to the deaf demands not just a knowledge of sign language, Ms. Penn and Mr. Champion say, but a thorough familiarity with the production. So they spend considerable time preparing; they see a show several times in advance, noting not only the action onstage but its effect on the audience, too. They stand in the back of the theater during the show and rehearse together.

11 Ms. Penn said it was less about the words than conveying the intention. And

the results are by no means formulaic; no two interpretations are the same. 12 “It’s like if Molière (a famous French dramatist of the 17th century) gets

translated into English,” Ms. Penn said. “Someone has to figure out what the original text was saying, and what was Molière going for, what was he trying to evoke? If you don’t have a good translation, the show’s going to be lost, and the audience won’t really be able to experience it in the way the playwright and the director meant.”

13 Just as a storyteller might adopt a character’s voice, so the interpreters adopt

physical traits of the actors they are representing. When Ms. Penn does the hyenas in “The Lion King,” for example, “I hunch over a lot,” she said. “You don’t want to be a caricature, but you want to give the feeling.”

14 “A lot of information happens on your face,” she added. “Eye gaze is

important. Where you’re looking directs the audience’s focus.” 15 The interpreters say they also work off one another, trying to capture the

essence of the relationships developing onstage. If one actor speaks to another in low tones, for example, an interpreter might lean slightly forward toward the other, indicating the body language of an aside.

16 There are interpretation challenges particular to Broadway shows: how to

handle songs with repeated lines and choruses without the signs’ seeming overly repetitive themselves, how to capture a moment of quiet onstage, how to indicate singing in unison.

47

17 “What is the sign language equivalent to unison?” Ms. Penn asked.“We had to practice and set our signs together.”

18 Mr. Champion said that several writers were consistently tough to interpret,

including Neil Simon (because the jokes are not always funny in sign language), Stephen Sondheim (because of the rapidity of the lyrics) and Lanford Wilson (because of the multiple characters talking at the same time).

19 The interpreters always consult a deaf person in preparing for a show.

“Sometimes our own hearing gets in our way,” Mr. Champion said.“We don’t know what it looks like.”

20 Because both her parents were deaf, Ms. Penn, born in Morganton, N.C., grew

up bilingual, she said, knowing sign language as well as English. She put herself through college interpreting and then spent three-and-a-half years touring as the speaking actress for the National Theater of the Deaf. She came to New York in 1980, the year that “Children of a Lesser God,” a drama set in a school for the deaf, opened on Broadway.

21 “It raised everybody’s consciousness about deaf people and the possibility of

inclusion into mainstream theatergoing audiences,” Ms. Penn said. 22 That year the Theater Development Fund began its program, and Ms. Penn

helped select interpreters. “It’s exciting when a deaf audience comes to see a show and can laugh or cry and have the experience everybody else is,” she said.

23 Mr. Champion, also the child of deaf parents, grew up interpreting in his

hometown, Tulsa, Okla. He moved to New York in 1980 and was one of the interpreters on “Elephant Man.” He has worked on 40 shows since then.

24 The fund offers interpretations of about six productions a year, each of which

attracts about 150 people per performance. Signed performances are scheduled for “Aida” in January and “Kiss Me, Kate” in February.

Copyright ©2004 by The New York Times Co. Reprinted with permission.

48

Item 31. The author indicates that there are benefits to having musicals signed. Cite

four examples from the passage that illustrate this.


Sample Response for Item 31 (Extended Response):

The author explains that there are numerous benefits from having musicals signed. Among the examples or details in the passage that could be used to show this are the following:

The deaf audience can be “better connected” to the stage performance (paragraph 6); “for audiences, the interpretations can be electric” (paragraph 9); “it has opened the world of musicals for me” (paragraph 9); “I was able to identify with hearing people and to understand why people in general love musical plays” (paragraph 9); “it raises everybody’s consciousness about deaf people and the possibility of inclusion into mainstream theatergoing audiences” (paragraph 21). Scoring Guidelines for Item 31: Score Point Description

4 points The response cites four appropriate details or examples from the passage.

3 points The response cites three appropriate details or examples from the passage.

2 points The response cites two appropriate details or examples from the passage.

1 points The response cites one appropriate detail or example from the passage.


49

Reading

Item 31

Spring 2008


50

Score Point: 0

The response is too vague to show a real understanding of the task.

51

Score Point: 0

The response is too vague to show a real understanding of the task.

52

Score Point: 1

The response cites one appropriate detail or example from the passage (“With having musicals signed it allows for a biger audience”).

53

Score Point: 1

The response cites one appropriate detail or example from the passage (“it tries to connect the deaf audience to the performance”).

54

Score Point: 2

The response cites two appropriate details or examples from the passage (“raised everybody’s conciousness about deaf people,” “It’s exciting when a deaf audience comes to see a show and ... has the experience everyone else is”).

55

Score Point: 2

The response cites two appropriate details or examples from the passage (“‘It has opened the world of musical for me’ — Frank L. Dattolo,” “a deaf audience can go to a show and can laugh, cry, & have the same experience as everyone else”).

56

Score Point: 3

The response cites three appropriate details or examples from the passage (“We’re trying to connect the deaf audience to the stage performance,” “It has opened the world of musicals for me,” “It raised everybody’s consciousness about deaf people and the possibility of inclusion into mainstream theatergoing audiences”).

57

Score Point: 3

The response cites three appropriate details or examples from the passage (“It will bring the deaf to a connection with on stage performances,” “It also lets deaf people enjoy things like people who can hear enjoy,” “Frank Dattolo said it was great for him to be able to escape reality for a while”).

58

Score Point: 4

The response cites four appropriate details or examples from the passage (“It’s exciting that deaf people go to see shows,” “It opens the world of musicals to the deaf,” “The deaf are able to identify with people that hear,” “The deaf are able to understand why people love musical plays”).

59

Score Point: 4

The response cites four appropriate details from the passage “now the deaf can escape to a fantasy world while watch the musicals,” “it opened a whole new world up,” “Having musicals signed also raised everyone’s consciousness about deaf people and the possibility of inclusion into the mainstream theater-going audiences,” “Now life is very different for deaf people, they can go to a show and laugh, or cry and have the same experience as everyone else”).

60

Reading

Item 36

Spring 2008


61

Passage

Interpreting the Theater Without Speaking a Word

1 The Broadway musical “Fosse” usually opens with just one spotlight on a woman standing stage right singing “Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries.” The other night there was another spotlight stage left on a woman standing in the front row facing the audience, acting out the words with her hands and face, reaching up into the darkness, pinching at make-believe cherries and dropping them into her mouth.

2 The sign language evocation was part of the 21st season of interpreted

performances for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Since 1980, with the first sign-language-interpreted performance of “The Elephant Man,” the Theater Development Fund has presented hundreds of such performances of Broadway and Off-Broadway shows through its Theater Access Project. Four years ago the fund began to offer captioned performances in some theaters, with small digital screens at the front of one of the side sections of the orchestra seats.

3 In June, the fund held its third annual one-week summer course for interpreters

from regional theaters throughout the country. The course is intended to increase the pool of qualified interpreters and to raise the standard of theater interpreting nationwide. This year’s course drew participants from 17 states, many of whom interpret Broadway shows on the road. As their final project, the students helped translate, rehearse and participate in the signing of “Jekyll and Hyde” on Broadway.

4 Candace Broecker Penn and Alan Champion, who handled the recent

performance of “Fosse,” are among Broadway’s most experienced interpreters and often work as a team. They have handled about 15 productions together and also lead the summer institute.

5 Ms. Penn and Mr. Champion say their work involves much more than sign

language: it is about explaining context, directing attention and conveying emotion. They try to strike a delicate balance, Ms. Penn said, telling an audience where to focus without drawing that focus to themselves.

6 “We’re trying to connect the deaf audience to the stage performance,” Ms.

Penn said. “When they look at you, they should know exactly which actor is speaking onstage.”

7 “It’s a fine line,” she added, “because if it’s too showy, actors will feel it’s

distracting, and a deaf audience will feel it’s distracting.” 8 Mr. Champion added: “It’s almost like you want the deaf people in the

audience to tell you when they need you. There is plenty of stuff in a show

62

that’s visual. You’re looking for those moments when you can invite people not to watch us.”

9 For audiences the interpretations can be electric. “It has opened the world of

musicals for me,” said Frank L. Dattolo, a deaf actor who toured for three years with the National Theater of the Deaf and regularly attends signed performances. “I was able to identify with hearing people and to understand why people in general love musical plays. At that point I finally understood the meaning of escape, where people go see plays or musical plays to escape to a fantasy world for a few hours and then go back to reality.”

10 Lisa Carling, who runs the Theater Access Project, said she regularly drew from

a pool of about a dozen interpreters. Communicating a Broadway show to the deaf demands not just a knowledge of sign language, Ms. Penn and Mr. Champion say, but a thorough familiarity with the production. So they spend considerable time preparing; they see a show several times in advance, noting not only the action onstage but its effect on the audience, too. They stand in the back of the theater during the show and rehearse together.

11 Ms. Penn said it was less about the words than conveying the intention. And

the results are by no means formulaic; no two interpretations are the same. 12 “It’s like if Molière (a famous French dramatist of the 17th century) gets

translated into English,” Ms. Penn said. “Someone has to figure out what the original text was saying, and what was Molière going for, what was he trying to evoke? If you don’t have a good translation, the show’s going to be lost, and the audience won’t really be able to experience it in the way the playwright and the director meant.”

13 Just as a storyteller might adopt a character’s voice, so the interpreters adopt

physical traits of the actors they are representing. When Ms. Penn does the hyenas in “The Lion King,” for example, “I hunch over a lot,” she said. “You don’t want to be a caricature, but you want to give the feeling.”

14 “A lot of information happens on your face,” she added. “Eye gaze is

important. Where you’re looking directs the audience’s focus.” 15 The interpreters say they also work off one another, trying to capture the

essence of the relationships developing onstage. If one actor speaks to another in low tones, for example, an interpreter might lean slightly forward toward the other, indicating the body language of an aside.

16 There are interpretation challenges particular to Broadway shows: how to

handle songs with repeated lines and choruses without the signs’ seeming overly repetitive themselves, how to capture a moment of quiet onstage, how to indicate singing in unison.

63

17 “What is the sign language equivalent to unison?” Ms. Penn asked.“We had to practice and set our signs together.”

18 Mr. Champion said that several writers were consistently tough to interpret,

including Neil Simon (because the jokes are not always funny in sign language), Stephen Sondheim (because of the rapidity of the lyrics) and Lanford Wilson (because of the multiple characters talking at the same time).

19 The interpreters always consult a deaf person in preparing for a show.

“Sometimes our own hearing gets in our way,” Mr. Champion said.“We don’t know what it looks like.”

20 Because both her parents were deaf, Ms. Penn, born in Morganton, N.C., grew

up bilingual, she said, knowing sign language as well as English. She put herself through college interpreting and then spent three-and-a-half years touring as the speaking actress for the National Theater of the Deaf. She came to New York in 1980, the year that “Children of a Lesser God,” a drama set in a school for the deaf, opened on Broadway.

21 “It raised everybody’s consciousness about deaf people and the possibility of

inclusion into mainstream theatergoing audiences,” Ms. Penn said. 22 That year the Theater Development Fund began its program, and Ms. Penn

helped select interpreters. “It’s exciting when a deaf audience comes to see a show and can laugh or cry and have the experience everybody else is,” she said.

23 Mr. Champion, also the child of deaf parents, grew up interpreting in his

hometown, Tulsa, Okla. He moved to New York in 1980 and was one of the interpreters on “Elephant Man.” He has worked on 40 shows since then.

24 The fund offers interpretations of about six productions a year, each of which

attracts about 150 people per performance. Signed performances are scheduled for “Aida” in January and “Kiss Me, Kate” in February.

Copyright ©2004 by The New York Times Co. Reprinted with permission.

64

Item

36. Explain a purpose the author may have had in writing the article. Give an

example from the article that supports your explanation.

Write your answer in the Answer Document. (2 points) Sample Response for Item 36 (Short Answer):

One purpose the author had in writing this article was to make the reader aware that the hearing impaired have the same need for entertainment and escape as those who can hear. When the author quotes an interpreter as saying it’s exciting to see a deaf audience laugh and cry, she illustrates this point.

Scoring Guidelines for Item 36:

Score Point Description

2 points The response provides an accurate explanation AND a clear example from the passage in support.

1 point The response provides an accurate explanation. However, it does NOT provide an example from the passage in support.

0 points The response shows no understanding of the task.

65

Reading

Item 36

Spring 2008


66

Score Point: 0

The response shows no understanding of the task.

67

Score Point: 0


68

Score Point: 0


69

Score Point: 1

The response provides an accurate explanation of a purpose the author had in writing the article (“to help people understand that people with hearing problems can do the same things ...”), but without a clear example from the passage in support.

70

Score Point: 1

The response provides an accurate explanation of a purpose the author had in writing the article (“doing the plays for deft people to was a good thing”), but without a clear example from the passage in support.

71

Score Point: 1

The response provides an accurate explanation of a purpose the author had in writing the article (“to inform readers of a different way to look at Theater”), but without a clear example from the passage in support.

72

Score Point: 2

The response provides an accurate explanation of a purpose the author had in writing the article (“to try to make deaf and hearing impairs to be and act like normal humans”) and a clear example from the passage in support (“‘It’s exciting when a deaf audience comes to see a show and can laugh or cry and have the experience everybody else is!’”).

73

Score Point: 2

The response provides an accurate explanation of a purpose the author had in writing the article (“he wanted people to know that just because they are deaf does’nt mean they can’t go to a musical”) and a clear example from the passage in support (“A lot of information happens on your face, and deaf people can read people’s faces”).

74

Score Point: 2

The response provides an accurate explanation of a purpose the author had in writing the article (“to inform people about how deaf people can enjoy musicals”) and a clear example from the passage in support (“An example is ‘ ... When a deaf audience comes to see a show and laugh or cry ...’”).

75

Reading

Item 41

Spring 2008


76

Passage

Grandma Ling

1 If you dig that hole deep enough, you’ll reach China, they used to tell me, a child in a backyard in Pennsylvania. Not strong enough to dig that hole, I waited twenty years, then sailed back, halfway around the world.

2 In Taiwan I first met Grandma.

Before she came to view, I heard her slippered feet softly measure the tatami1 floor with even step; the aqua paper-covered door slid open and there I faced my five foot height, sturdy legs and feet, square forehead, high cheeks and wide-set eyes; my image stood before me, acted on by fifty years.

3 She smiled, stretched her arms

to take to heart the eldest daughter of her youngest son a quarter century away. She spoke a tongue I knew no word of, and I was sad I could not understand, but I could hug her.

MEET THE WRITER Between Worlds

4 As a child, Amy Ling (1939 – 1999) had a special reason for wanting to reach China: She’d be going home. Amy Ling, whose name was originally Ling Ying Ming, was born in Beijing, China, and moved to the United States with her family at the age of six. “Grandma Ling” was inspired by a trip to Taiwan the poet made in the early 1960s. Ling studied and wrote about other American writers who are “between worlds,” especially Asian-American women writers.

Used by permission of the author. ____________________________ 1Tatami: (tä-ta´me): floor mat woven of rice straw.

77

Item 41. Explain what is meant when the poet writes, “my image stood before me, /

acted on by fifty years” (stanza 2). Use information from the text to support your response.


Sample Response for Item 41 (Short Answer): Possible explanations include the following:

• The poet realizes how much she looks like her grandmother. • The poet sees her grandmother as an example of what she will look like in fifty

years. Possible details include the following:

• The poet notes that she shares the same height and build as her grandmother. • The poet notes that their physical appearances, especially their facial

features, are similar. • The poet notes that she shares a connection with her grandmother, even

though there is a language barrier and age gap between them. Scoring Guidelines for Item 41: Score Point Description

2 points The response presents a plausible explanation that is supported with appropriate support from the poem.

1 point The response presents a plausible explanation, but it is not supported with appropriate support from the poem.


78

Reading

Item 41

Spring 2008


79

Score Point: 0


80

Score Point: 0

The response provides details from the poem that could serve as supporting information, but does not provide a plausible explanation.

81

Score Point: 0


82

Score Point: 1

The response presents a plausible explanation (“this is what she will look like fifty years from now”) with a missing or incorrect supporting detail from the poem.

83

Score Point: 1

The response presents a plausible explanation (“it was her image, looked like her but 50 years older”) with a missing or incorrect supporting detail from the poem.

84

Score Point: 1

The response presents a plausible explanation (“when she stood in front of her grandmother she could see herself, except 50 years older”) with a missing or incorrect supporting detail from the poem.

85

Score Point: 2

The response presents a plausible explanation (“they look alike but the poet’s grandmother is 50 years older”) and an appropriate supporting detail from the poem (“she and her grandmother are both five feet tall, have sturdy legs and feet, square foreheads, high cheeks and wide-set eyes”).

86

Score Point: 2

The response presents a plausible explanation (“noticing the resemblances ... fifty years older than her current appearance”) and an appropriate supporting detail from the poem (“the author refers to her grandmother’s height, legs, and feet as her own”).

87

Score Point: 2

The response presents a plausible explanation (“the person in front of her was her image or someone just like her but aged 50 years”) and an appropriate supporting detail from the poem (“5 foot height, sturdy legs, and feet, square forehead, high cheeked, and wide-set eyes”).

88

Documents

OHIO GRADUATION TESTS - Ohio Department of